Previously we explored the details and
definition of formal licensed apprenticeship (FLATE FOCUS June

2013)
and formal student internships (FLATE Focus July 2013).
This month we will look at less formal work experiences for students. These
experiences differentiate themselves from apprenticeships and internships by
the important fact that they do not have any tie to a particular credit-bearing
course (as an internship would be). These less formal work experiences can certainly
add important related work experience to a student’s resume. These
opportunities can be thought of as regular part-time jobs that happen to be in
the student’s field of study.

One option is college work-study programs,
which provide on-campus, part-time jobs for students that

qualify for the
federal program. On-campus jobs of interest to students in technical programs
could include the laboratory technician helpers, or positions in the college
utilities, or information technology departments. Work-study programs and
campus student assistant positions have the advantage of providing a work
experience at the same location that the students attend classes, but is not
necessarily work in a “real manufacturing company.” Additionally, there is no
connection to a college course, so there is no specific set of skills and work
experience expectations, and no assessment by a faculty, or instructor as would
happen in a formal internship program.

Many faculty will help their students
find part-time jobs with their industry partners trying to match students’
interest directly to a company’s needs. These situations often result in
informal, or formal employment-related mentoring by the industry partner and/or
the faculty. This arrangement can increase the value of the part-time jobs, and
provide additional guidance for the student that they would get in a formal
internship.

This leads us to job shadowing. Job
shadowing is a career exploration activity that offers an opportunity to spend
time with a professional currently working in a student’s career field of
interest. Job shadowing offers a chance to see what it’s actually like working
in a specific job, observe the day-to-day activities of someone in the current
workforce, and also get some of their questions answered. Categorically, a
job-shadow experience is an extended informational interview. Most
informational interviews are approximately 30 minutes, while a job-shadowing
experience is typically a few hours to a full workday. Job shadowing is considered
a good career awareness/exploration experience for middle, or high school
students who are not yet old enough to legally work, but can be good
experiences for college, or technical school students as well.

For all student jobs: internships,
apprenticeships, job shadowing and co-operative education experiences, it is
important for both the student and the employer to prepare for the experience.
Students should research the company, ask about work expectations, work hours
and behaviors, etc. The company should be willing to provide personnel time and
energy to orient the student to the work environment, to train them for the
work expected, to oversee the student’s work, and mentor the student during the
experience.

Certainly most companies can identify
and implement one, or more of these student-focused opportunities to help our
youth learn how interesting and exciting it can be to work in the manufacturing
field, understand the breadth of the industry just by being part of it, and
possibly recruit future workers. Hiring students also provides direct
connections to school curriculum that manufacturers can then influence to meet
their needs. It’s up to all of us professionals in the field to help grow the
next generations of manufacturing professionals. If you have specific questions
on how to get stated with any of these, please feel contact me at barger@fl-ate.org.

We know all you educators are super busy
with the start of a new school year, but we hope you take time to read the
articles in this month’s newsletter that has a little something for educators, industry
colleagues as well as students. Above all we hope you will join FLATE in making
Manufacturing Day in Florida a huge success. We have many activities lined up,
so be sure to check them out in this edition of the Focus.

It’s
not too late to sign up for Manufacturing Day in
Florida. FLATE, the National Science Foundation Center of Excellence at
Hillsborough Community College in Brandon and the Manufacturers Association of
Florida are working with industry partners and educators across the state to
make a big, statewide splash for students on Manufacturing Day which is on Oct.
4, 2013. This event is the perfect opportunity to expand knowledge about and
improve public's perception of manufacturing careers.

Manufacturers
and stakeholders across the state are strongly urged to participate, organize a
regional team of manufacturers, schools, other community groups, and join in
the celebrations in a number of ways.

Schools/districts can provide transportation and
chaperones for students

Manufacturers can host a “Made in Florida” tour,
and provide lunch for student groups. If you have not signed up to host an
event, please do so here

Regional manufacturers can support the cost for
Manufacturing Day regional t-shirts for students. If you’d like to sponsor
and/or have your organization’s logo imprinted on the t-shirts please sign
up here

Organize a regional team of manufacturers,
schools, other community groups

FLATE is also working with regional
“Manufacturing Day teams,” helping to connect schools with

local companies,
arranging media publicity, designing and delivering t-shirts, and
surveying students to assess the impact on students in specific regions as well
as the overall impact on all participating students. The t-shirts also serve as
a tangible and long-time reminder of the significance of Manufacturing in
Florida. And, of course, it all helps put the “fun” in manufacturing.

The official guide to organizing Manufacturing Day
open houses, the most frequent type of Manufacturing Day event, is available atwww.MfgDay.com. For
local/Florida based manufacturing day events, visit the “Made in Florida” site. Here you can access
resources that answer common questions and outline steps that every
Manufacturing Day host will find useful, such as:

FLATE
will recognize participating companies and organizations on this webpage. If
your company can host a tour and provide student lunches, or your assist with
purchasing t-shirts for the student participants, publicity support, or
anything else, please sign up here, or
contact Desh Bagley, FLATE outreach manager at bagley@fl-ate.org or (813) 253-7838. Desh will follow up with
all participants with additional information regarding statewide manufacturing
day events.

We
look forward to everyone’s participation in Manufacturing Day celebrations in
Florida.

Looking
for ways to attract students to your manufacturing programs and to
manufacturing jobs? A new study by the U.S. Department of Commerce, Office of
Economics and Statistical Administration offers a different and positive light
on wages and salaries in manufacturing. Although comparisons between new hires
and incumbent workers probably won’t mean much to students, strong worker
earnings for the manufacturing sector between 2000-2011 are something to think
about.

average wages and benefits, full-time hours, and stable
employment. A relatively new data source, the Quarterly Workforce Indicators, reveals that new hires in
manufacturing sectors earn more than new hires in other industries. Key points
include a notable premium for new hires in manufacturing (38 percent) at the
end of 2011. Additionally, new hires in manufacturing make approximately 70
percent of incumbent worker earnings compared to new hires in other industries that
average only 60 percent of incumbents. Since the recession began, new hires and
incumbents in manufacturing have had real earnings grow 3.5 and 2.4 percent
points. New hires in other industries saw no growth in earnings while
incumbents actually have seen a decline in real earnings during the study time
period 2000-2011.

Other
good news can be gleaned from the data.
The smaller gap between new hires and incumbents can

indicate a higher
skill and/or education level of the new hires joining the manufacturing
workforce. This reflects the industry’s need for multi-skilled technicians to
operate and maintain the increasingly sophisticated automated machinery that is
being added to most manufacturing facilities across the country. This is certainly
the direction we see with our manufacturing partners in Florida who are looking
for more skilled and educated workers to grow their workforce.

The full
report is available from the U.S. Department of Commerce Economics and
Statistics Administration at www.esa.doc.gov. Write
your thoughts and continue the discussion below this blog post, or on our Facebook page.

driven actuator before it was to be shipped to
the customer. After examining the test
results shown in the graphic below, the Tech did not send the actuator to the
customer, but instead, sent it back for rework because the actuator leaked. The
leak test involved the application of the pressure pattern shown to the
right. The Tech knew that the value was
not supposed to leak when the pressures in the test pattern were applied to the
hydraulic fluid in the actuator.

The Tech rejected the actuator
because the test results shown below were not the same square wave shape as the
applied pressure test pattern shown above.

Yes or NO. Submit your answers
below the blog post, or at www.fl-ate.org.

According to a
recent study conducted by the Hillsborough and Pinellas counties’ leading economic
and workforce development organizations, Hillsborough and Pinellas counties are
home to 2,074 manufacturers, representing 50,803 employees. Manufacturing
employees have a total income contribution of almost $9 billion to the local economy,
and each manufacturing job created results in the creation of an additional
2.65 jobs. The study states the economic recovery is leading manufacturers to
increase production, but they are facing challenges in hiring qualified workers
for critical positions. Almost 40% of Hillsborough and Pinellas counties’
manufacturers say that the skills gap is limiting business growth.

To take a closer
look into the situation, Hillsborough and Pinellas counties’ economic and
workforce

development organizations recently conducted a comprehensive skill
set needs assessment for Hillsborough and Pinellas Counties. The report was
published in August 2013, and was sponsored by Tampa Hillsborough Economic
Development Corporation, Pinellas County Economic Development, Tampa Bay
Workforce Alliance, WorkNet Pinellas, Tampa Bay Partnership and Florida
High-Tech Corridor. The Hillsborough-Pinellas Manufacturing Gap Analysis was
targeted to quantify the areas’ difficult to fill manufacturing skills set. In
total, 107 skill sets across 16 job type categories were surveyed. There were
109 responding companies, representing 14,715 employees, or 28.9% of the entire
manufacturing employee population in the two county area.

Data from the
analysis showed an increasing shift from traditional manufacturing methods to
more advanced methods. The highest 12-month vacancies were for production
solderers, which work predominately in the areas component manufacturers. CNC machining
positions were ranked as having the second and fourth highest vacancies,
underscoring the shift from traditional to advanced methods. Maintenance
mechanics had the third highest 12-month vacancies. Mig and Tig welders were
tied as having the fifth highest 12-month vacancies.

Based on the
interviews, the organizations determined three action areas and possible
solutions, where they believed they could make an impact to improve the
manufacturing talent pipeline.

Areas for
improvement included:

1. A lack of
interest in manufacturing is causing a shortage of skilled workers.

2. Workers lack
knowledge of industry.

3. There needs to
be a greater connection between industry and education.

The study also points to valuable resources and possible partnership
opportunities manufacturers can avail of

in the area to address the skills gap.
Among these, FLATE the National Science Foundation Center of Excellence at
Hillsborough Community College (HCC) was named as the go to organization for
manufacturing and advanced technical education. FLATE developed and continues
to support the comprehensive Engineering Technology associate of science degree
and certificate programs offered at HCC, St. Petersburg College and 14
community & state colleges in Florida. These programs offer training in many
of the high vacancy jobs identified in the survey that include machining,
electronics, and quality.

For detailed information on core courses and certificates
offered by the A.S. degree in engineering technology visit FLATE’s “Made in Florida” site. The site is part of FLATE’s statewide outreach
campaign aimed at changing community perceptions about manufacturing, and recruit
students into high-tech, high- wage STEM career pathways that support manufacturing.
For
information on current skills gap in the region read the
Tampa-Hillsborough
EDC detailed report.

There
is a song in the Disney Junior channel which beats to the tune of “you can be
who you want to be.” That was exactly the kind of message 36 girls enrolled in
the PACE program received during their one day visit to FLATE’s, Careers in Technology and Robotics
Workshop. The workshop was held in
August and involved PACE students and teachers from Manatee, Hillsborough,
Pinellas, Pasco, and Polk counties. PACE Center for Girls, Inc.is a not-for-profit 501(c) 3
corporation that provides a non-residential delinquency prevention program in
locations statewide, targeting the unique needs of females 12 to 18 who are
identified as dependent, truant, runaway, delinquent, or in need of academic
skills. Its purpose is to intervene and prevent school withdrawal, juvenile
delinquency, teen pregnancy, substance abuse and welfare dependency in a safe
and nurturing environment. (Source:PACE
website)

During
the day long visit to FLATE’s manufacturing and engineering technology
laboratory at Hillsborough

Community College in Brandon, the girls programmed Lego® Mindstorms® robots, and got an
overview of educational and career pathways in Science, Technology, Engineering
and Mathematics (STEM). “Our goal is to provide students with
hands-on robotics experiences while emphasizing how robots are used in
manufacturing” said Desh Bagley, outreach manager for FLATE. To that effect, students got a wealth
of information on applications of robotics technology in everyday settings and
in manufacturing operations, and witnessed a demo of the NAO humanoid robot in
action. To give a real-world view of engineering and technical professions, Dr.
Sylvia Thomas, professor of electrical engineering at the University of South
Florida in Tampa, gave a first-hand account of a “day in the life of an
engineer,” and the skills set and knowledge required to pursue STEM based
careers and educational pathways. “I'm here to encourage each of you to dream
and to become the great young ladies that you are” said Thomas.

With
that in mind, the girls were encouraged to dispel the myths associated with
becoming an engineer and/or

STEM professional. The students also got an
overview of local high-tech companies, like Lockheed Martin, Pratt &
Whitney, Featherlite, Tampa Armature Works and Tropicana that they could work
for in the future. “It’s all about
discovering who you are and the choices that you have” Thomas said.

Preliminary
survey from the workshop showed more than 90% of the students agreed/strongly
agreed that the workshop made them think about how STEM is used outside the
classroom. More than half the participants also agreed/strongly agreed that the
workshop made them consider a career in advanced manufacturing. More than 90%
of the respondents also stated learning about robotics made them think about
the applications of automated systems in advanced manufacturing settings.

FLATE
and the National Science Foundation recognize the importance of providing
professional

development to the Florida engineering technology community. This
year FLATE hosted the 3rd Engineering Technology Summer Institute workshop
for Florida educators, faculty and staff personnel involved in “Building
Florida’s Manufacturing Pathways.” The workshop was held as a one day
pre-conference workshop at the 47th Annual Florida Association for Career and
Technical Educators (FACTE) conference & trade show at Ponte Vedra Beach,
FL.To
develop curriculum and reinforcement strategies for bolstering student success
the workshop included a

shared best practice panel and two group activities.
Best practice panel focused in integrating Manufacturing Skills Standards
Council (MSSC) into high school curriculum, sharing strategies for preparing
students for the MSSC tests, and establishing a common tie between MSSC and
educational resources available for educators and students. Activity I included
review and alignment of the Automation & Production Technology frameworks
to MSSC standards. Activity II involved review of the MSSC production standards
and identification of key vocabulary that students need to learn to score
higher in MSSC test and improve their success in finding better jobs.

FLATE has created the following link
that contains presentations and resources developed during FLATE'sE.T. Summer Institute III. Material posted includes Automation and
Production Technology (APT) that is aligned to the MSSC -CPT credential summary report of activities I
& II, links to the the MSSC website FLDOE
Curriculum Frameworks for this program, wisc-online, & other resources,
MSSC test review resources from Bruce (Dale) Toney (Marion Technical Institute),
all workshop presentations including audio recordings.Following
the conference, 100% of 28 survey responders agreed
they have a better understanding of how

MSSC standards can be aligned to
curriculum. The same number of responders also stated that there was a very
good or excellent likelihood for them to implement components of this workshop
at their institution. Typical survey comments included: “It was very helpful to
me to speak with other people in the field,” “Very beneficial workshop” and “It
was very informative and exciting to see how much is being done for our
students.”Special
thanks to Bluegrass Educational Technologies, LLC and Lab-Volt for
sponsoring workshop’s lunch. If you have additional resources you would like to
share please contact Danielly Orozco-Cole, curriculum coordinator at orozco@fl-ate.org, or visit www.fl-ate.org and www.madeinflorida.org.

All volunteers will be provided
with an event Tee Shirt that should be worn at Friday and Saturday events.

A Hospitality
room will be provided at the Armwood High Media where meals, snacks, and
beverages will be provided for event volunteers, judges and corporate sponsors
only. On Friday evening, pizza and drinks and on Saturday a continental breakfast and lunch will be provided for
event volunteers, judges and corporate sponsors only. We thank you in advance
for your willingness to volunteer to help with this worthwhile STEM program. We
guarantee you'll have an awesome time.

Marketing Presentations - 9 judges needed
Friday Night Only .Each participating
"BEST Awards Company" must give a 20-minute oral presentation to highlight
both the Company’s business model and robot-building process as well as
community involvement. Each Company is allowed a 30-minute time slot: 5 minutes
for set-up, 15 minutes to present, 5 minutes for Q & A from the judges and
5 minutes for judges to fill out the scoring sheets. Teams are encouraged to be
as creative as possible with their presentations. This category will include a
minimum of 4 and a maximum of 8 Company members, with 3 judges present for each
presentation. This judging event will occur on Friday, November 1 with
hospitality 6-6:30pm, orientation at 6:30-7pm and judging beginning at 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Company Tradeshow Exhibits and
Interviews - 6 judges needed Friday Night Only. Trade Show Booth: Each
participating "BEST Award Company” is given a 8' X 8' X 8' space with a
6-ft. table on which to visually and creatively display their Business Model, School
Spirit, Community Involvement, and Robot Design and Construction. Judges will
circulate the table display area and interview Company members staffing the
displays. These displays will occur on
Friday, November 1 with hospitality 6-6:30pm, orientation at 6:30-7pm and judging
beginning at 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Project Engineering Notebooks – 6 judges needed
Shift 1 only. Each participating "Company” must produce a 3-ring
binder notebook that documents the process the Company went through to design
and build the robot, a technical diary of sorts. The notebook can contain a
maximum of 30 pages of written explanation, along with photographs, design
drawings, computer-generated drawings, etc. Notebooks will be submitted online
and reviewed by judges during the week prior to competition. People with
backgrounds in math, science, engineering and technology are especially needed
in this area. Notebooks
judging will occur on Saturday, November 2 with orientation at 8:30a.m. and
judging beginning at 9 a.m. to noon.

Spirit and Sportsmanship - 6 judges needed to
work all day covering both shifts during
the competition on Saturday, November 2. Judges will circulate the arena and
evaluate School/Company Spirit and good sportsmanship of Company members.
Judges need to arrive on Saturday, November 2 with orientation at 8:30am and
judging beginning at 9:00am to 4:00pm

Head Judges (Shift 1- 2 needed, Shift 2- 2 needed) November 2 with
orientation at 8:30am and judging beginning at 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.Referees – 10 needed (5 Shift 1
and 5 Shift 2) The Robotics portion of the competition is similar to many
sporting events in that it requires referees to oversee all head-to-head
matches between robots. Additional referees will be needed to rotate
periodically and give each other breaks throughout the day. Referees must be
very familiar with the game rules, with preference being given to those who
have served as referee for the current year’s game at a local hub. Rules for
this year's challenge will be released 9/21/12 at http://FloridaRoboticsAlliance.Org.
Saturday, Nov. 2, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Hospitality - 6 Needed (3 Shift
1 and 3 Shift 2).A hospitality
room will be provided at the Armwood High School where meals, snacks, and
beverages will be provided for event volunteers, judges and corporate sponsors
only. Friday evening pizza and drinks, Saturday continental breakfast and lunch
will be provided for event volunteers, judges and corporate sponsors only.
Friday, November 1 6:00pm – 7:00pm, Saturday November 2 7:30am – 4:00pm,

Volunteers
and Judges please read the info for which you are volunteering:

NOCTI Book

If you are new to CTE administration or considering moving into that arena, you might want to check out this new resource published by ACTE and written by NOCTI. There are lots of hot tips, check lists and and case studies / notes from the field including our experiences here at FLATE working with our industry partners through advisory committees or boards. (You can find FLATE on page 56!). You don’t have to re-invent the wheel.

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Disclaimer

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation, under the following grant DUE# 1204751. "Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation."